Recently, I spoke to a group of small business owners, single office/home office (SOHO) and professional executives all looking to grow their businesses. During this presentation, I learned that one of the attendees was a certified life coach through a national coaching certification program. After the presentation, I was approached by this individual who asked me the following question: Who certified me? I responded: My clients because of the measurable and sustainable results that I deliver to them. This life coach then said: "Results are good, but you need a solid base of knowledge." Even after sharing with her that I had over 25 years of corporate experience, 5 years in education and a Masters in Instructional Design and Technology (I can write education, training and development programs regardless of industry or demographics), I then realized that her belief system was in full swing and that without some agency recognizing her acquisition of knowledge or learning, she would never understand that the application of knowledge, performance or results in this case, is more important. During the 30 minute presentation, this certified coach also sincerely asked: "Do you really need two plans: A strategic business plan and a personal or life plan?" I immediately answered: "Absolutely!" To keep balance in ones life requires working both the personal life wheel and the business life wheel. But more importantly, what this question revealed to me is that this coach was certified for the competencies determined by this organization, but that these competencies are not necessarily the same for all individuals. Linda Martin and Dr. David Mutchler in the book Fail-Safe Leadership specifically address the fallacy in developing competency based models. Also, her question indicated to me why there is a growing trend in coaches coaching coaches. The discussion continued and I surprisingly learned from her perspective that because I was not certified I was confusing people by presenting myself as a coach when I really was a consultant. NOTE: I was not even introduced as a coach nor as a consultant, but rather a speaker on business issues. Even though I am currently out performing the majority of coaches in the first 3 of the 4 key findings by Stephen Fairley, author of Getting Started in Personal and Executive Coaching, in her opinion I am not legitimate. Fairley's research suggested the following: - 73% of all coaches make less than $10,000 in their first year
- 53% of all coaches make less than $20,000 a year
- 30% of all coaches have never been able to find 10 paying clients
- Only 9% of coaches are currently making more than $100,000 a year coaching
In doing some research for this article, I discovered 3 critical issues. First, coaching certification is not inexpensive. A Google of national web sites indicated that certification ranges from a basic cost of $4,000 to $8,000 and most certifying agencies or organizations have additional fees that may actually double the initial investment. And what is really interesting to note is that several of the research sites mandated their students to find outside coaches who have been certified by that particular agency. These future coaches were required to pay additional hourly fees of $50 to $200 for at least another 20 plus hours of private coaching. Second, many of these organizations have been established for less than 10 years. This made sense since coaching is a relatively young industry. However, what this also revealed is that some of the competencies and tools certified by these organizations are also young and have not withstood the test of time. Third, the importance of cognitive knowledge and skills supercedes the importance of attitudes and habits. This, too, made sense since the conditioning of the K-16 education experience as well as corporate training experience focused on learning and presumed that mastery performance will follow. Yet, the question I always ask my potential clients: "Is the performance failure due to a lack of knowledge or skills or because of poor attitudes and habits? The answer 98% of the time is attitudes and habits. So, then the question that follows is: Are your actions focused on the knowledge and skills or behaviors and hoping to change the attitudes or on the attitudes knowing that is the more logical way to change behaviors? Coaching certification can be a good thing as long as it is results focused and the certified competencies including the processes and tools can cross from individuals to organizations and work within any industry. For coaching is a proven strategy that can deliver a positive return on investment when executed with planning and pre-determined measurements. What continues to intrigue me is that during the last 5 years when my practice began to use executive coaching as a proven strategy for performance improvement only certified coaches have asked me as to my coaching certification credentials and never my potential clients. And, this is probably why, I continue to ask myself this question: And your point is? |
